Tag Archives: rustic

Close to one year after our wedding, my wife Ester and I are, at long-last, sending out thank you packages. Having handcrafted the rustic Edison-style light fixtures for our wedding reception (with some much appreciated assembly line help from my Dad) we had hoped that we would be able to send those same lights to family and friends who not only shared with us and supported us on our wedding day, but support our family on a daily basis. In this way a light which helped to brighten our wedding festivities may continue to brighten, in some small way, the lives of our family and friends.

If you were part of our wedding, or lent your support, a package should be making its way to you. Postage services being what they are, if you have yet to receive a package by August, 2014, please let us know by sending an email to esterandphil [at] esterandphil [dot see oh ehm]. Those of you in Italy and in Australia will receive bulbs appropriately rated for 220-240 volts, while these weren’t in use at our wedding, rest assured that we’ll infuse them with loving and thankful vibes before sending them on their way.

These simple light fixtures were designed, selected from reclaimed barn wood (the Barn Board Store), cut, drilled, sanded and stained by Ester and I with our family and friends in mind — each one unique in character. The modest design allows for a number of use scenarios, it can be placed on a table or desk in virtually any orientation, the socket completing an a-frame support, or it can be wall mounted with the use of a corner bracket or two (not included) so that the light may hang through the hole in the fixture. Some uses require the plug to be threaded through the hole in the fixture, other uses require that the socket be connected to the light bulb through the hole in the fixture.

Lights delivered within North American will be 120 volts (Italy and Australia will be 220 volts). The switch is a 3-way, it will take two clicks to turn on the included bulb, however, should you replace the bulb with a 2-stage bulb (dim, bright) these clicks will toggle the brightness.

Thank you for all of your support, we hope you enjoy this small token of our appreciation. If you would like to share a photo of your light fixture once it’s settled in, we’d be delighted to see it! You can use the upload form below, or send it to esterandphil [at] esterandphil [dot see oh ehm].

After deciding to have our wedding in a barn which had been converted into an event space my thoughts turned to lighting. With the rustic nature of the barn and the impressively high ceilings, one type of lighting sprang to mind instantly — Edison-style bulbs.

I’ve long been a fan of cloth covered wire, so I decided to make each bulb a separate hanging fixture with twisted cloth covered wire, an outlet and a bulb socket. This made the setup completely modular, allowing us to adjust for electrical loads and support almost any arrangement of bulbs. Each fixture would be plugged into a multi-outlet extension cord and secured with a small electrical tie. Each multi-outlet extension cord was plugged in through a lamp dimmer, which was also affixed with an electrical tie to avoid disconnections.

The parts I sourced are below, feel free to comment with better prices. These sockets are three-stage but the bulbs are not, bulbs could be swapped for three-stage bulbs or the sockets for single stage, but it all works regardless. Three-stage bulbs may eliminate the need for the dimmers, but having the dimmers made adjustments quite easy.

To wire the hanging fixtures I first slipped one piece of heat shrink tubing (without heating yet) over the cloth ends encompassing both leads. I then worked the cloth back, stripped the insulation inside and then attached the leads to the socket and plug. Once the leads were secured I shimmied the heat shrink as close to the connections as it would go and blasted it with the heat gun (or, oh my, harassed it with the soldering iron).

Before you go wild with these, do some math to see how many fixtures you should be plugging into each extension cord, and how much wattage your dimmer can support — watch dimmers closely at first, they may heat up, but make sure they’re not melting!

Update: Close to a year following our wedding we sent these lights, along with a simple handcrafted fixture, to family and friends as a token of our appreciation and as a keepsake from our wedding. Details about the Edison light thank you packages can be found here.